ETA: I find it beyond hilarious that Hazard is charged with "violent conduct". What a joke! I'd love to know what they call actual violence, like if he had purposefully kicked the boy hard (like he deserved). A 17-year-old at that!

quote:No way Hazard should be banned. How else was he going to get the ball, other than kick it out? I'd like to see a video of how the kid ended up on top of the ball, like a dickhead.

He didn't have to go for the ball at all and that is the entire point. Is the ball boy a little shit? Yes. But none of this would have happened if Hazard wouldn't have instigated the situation by running over to him. Violent conduct is a bit much, but what do people expect from the FA?

quote:Brendan Rodgers offered a light-hearted insight into the incident which occurred between ballboy Charlie Morgan and Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard during the Capital One Cup semi-final on Wednesday night.

With 10 minutes remaining at the Liberty Stadium and Swansea cruising towards the final of the competition courtesy of a 2-0 aggregate lead over the visitors, Hazard clashed with the ballboy off the field.

During his pre-Oldham press conference at Melwood on Friday afternoon, Rodgers was asked for his take on the event.

"I know Charlie well actually," laughed the manager. "He was great for me. He was taught well.

"He's a good boy, he loves his club and he loves his football. It was just an unfortunate incident to be fair. Hazard is obviously trying to get the ball back and, of course, none of us want to see [the incident] happen but I'm sure it wasn't intentional from Hazard.

"I've read all the ridiculous comments about whether [Hazard] should face criminal charges. It was just one of those incidents. Charlie's Twitter account has now got some more hits on it!

"Ballboys are well tuned-in to what's required in the game and it was maybe a wee bit of gamesmanship by Charlie but it's certainly nothing sinister. He's a real good kid. Any manager, player or coach would be happy if their ballboy did that."

quote:"Ballboys are well tuned-in to what's required in the game and it was maybe a wee bit of gamesmanship by Charlie but it's certainly nothing sinister. He's a real good kid. Any manager, player or coach would be happy if their ballboy did that."

Yep. Hilarious that this is getting overlooked. Any ball boy in any stadium during any match for any club takes his time returning the ball to play when his team is winning, and hurries up when his team is losing. He did nothing wrong or out of the ordinary.

That's my only problem with the situation. The Chelsea fans on Twitter and Reddit are all of a sudden knights for fair play and honesty in all aspects of the game. I didn't see any of them complaining when Drogba was making a career out of time-wasting.

It's a simple situation, really, and all of this attention is not deserved. The red was correct, and the suspension associated with it would have been fair. But this is the FA, which is not exactly known for its mental integrity. They will issue a harsh punishment to set precedent for future incidents.

This is karma for all the time wasting Drogba did against Barca last year. Seems to me you got the better end of the deal. CL>COC.

I may be the minority here, but I think the ball boy in more in the wrong than Hazard. If the ball boy had stayed on his feet and either 1. thrown the ball over Hazard's head(which would't be hard) so he had to chase after it or 2. threw the ball to the keeper (who would have then been able to time waste himself) there would be no argument here.

When I was a ballboy in middleschool I would never throw the ball directly to an oppositions player. The fact that this douche actually laid down on the ball though....It's absolutely absurd.

The ball boy took it too far first, and Hazard followed suit. 1 game ban for Hazard.

Also this:

quote:Imagine, for a moment, that it wasn't [Hazard] you played this little game against. Imagine it was Zlatan Ibrahimovic. If it was Zlatan you did this to...wow...he would have kicked you. He would have kicked you so hard that your body would have turned into a gas, caught fire and then covered the grass in a urine-like dew. Think about that.

quote:Yep. Hilarious that this is getting overlooked. Any ball boy in any stadium during any match for any club takes his time returning the ball to play when his team is winning, and hurries up when his team is losing. He did nothing wrong or out of the ordinary.

There's taking your time and there's turtling on top of the ball while a player is obviously trying to rightfully get it from you. He definitely crossed well over the line of "ordinary" ballboy behavior.

This coming from a former ballboy for a professional team, and yea CSB.